OAN Staff Addie Davis
8:47 AM – Thursday, May 21, 2026
Air France and Airbus were both found guilty of corporate manslaughter for the 2009 plane crash that killed 228 passengers and crew members, making it the deadliest aviation disaster in French history.
The verdict was handed down on Thursday by the Paris Court of Appeal, despite the companies previously having been acquitted in 2023.
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Air France Flight 447 on a flight path from Rio de Janeiro to Paris plunged into the Atlantic in 2009, leaving no survivors. According to Britannica, the jet, Airbus A330, disappeared with no distress call, leading to a lengthy search for the plane and passengers. Though some debris and bodies were found, the actual vessel was located some two years later.
Both Air France, the country’s flag-carrier airline, and Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer, claimed pilot error was responsible for the crash, though the online encyclopedia noted that the investigation revealed there may have been known issues with some instruments on the plane.
In the 2023 verdict, judges had said “no certain link of causality” could be proven between any company errors and the crash, a ruling that distressed the victims’ families, Britannica said.
The media also reported accusations by prosecutors questioning the pilots’ training.
The French newspaper Le Monde reported that the Paris court found the two companies were “solely and entirely responsible” and ordered them to each pay the maximum fine for corporate manslaughter, €225,000, which is roughly $260,000.
In a Thursday press release, Airbus acknowledged the judgment, but said the company would file an appeal with the Court of Cassation “to allow for a judicial review of the legal questions raised by this case.”
The manufacturer also expressed sympathy to the victims’ families.
“From the outset, Airbus has pursued a constant objective: to understand the facts, to seek the truth, to draw all necessary lessons and to act responsibly to continue improving aviation safety,” the company stated.
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